Acclaimed horror directorJames Wanis dipping his toes into thecomedy genreby producinga new half-hour sitcom about aliens for CBS. Wan is, of course, the director of such notable horror hits asSaw,Insidious,The Conjuring, andMalignant. While he hasn’t directed anything since 2023’sAquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Wan has been staying busy behind the scenes producing the upcoming Stephen King adaptationsSalem’s LotandThe Monkey, as well as the sequel to the 2021 video game adaptation,Mortal Kombat.
PerDeadline, Wan will produce the new sitcom,titledArea 51, through his Atomic Monster banner, which has also had a hand in producing such TV shows asMacGyver,I Know What You Did Last Summer, andArchive 81. Bringing the new sitcom to life areGod Friended Mecreators Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, and Laura Moran, who previously served as writer and producer on another CBS hit,The Neighborhood.
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In UFO lore, Area 51 is the mysterious government facility in Nevada that’s been said to house the remnants of crashed spacecraft and alien bodies, most notably from the 1947 Roswell incident, which saw an apparent extraterrestrial craft crash on a ranch outside Roswell, New Mexico. Since then, the facility has been a hubfor conspiracy theoriesthat claim it partakes in everything from weather manipulation to the creation of time travel technology.
Area 51will aim to poke fun at those conspiracy theories with a single-camera workplace sitcom shot similar toThe Office,Parks and Recreation, andBrooklyn Nine-Nine. Not much is known about the series thus far, other than that it will follow"the humans and Aliens that work together at the country’s most mysterious place.“There’s no word on casting, or when the series might make its network premiere.
James Wan Has a Ton of New Projects in the Pipeline
In addition to the aforementioned Stephen King adaptation andMortal Kombatsequel Wan, the 45-year-old Australian filmmaker hasno less than 20 other projectshe’s working on as either a producer or writer. These include the sequel to the 2022 hit,M3GANand its spin-off,SOULM8TE, the final film inThe Conjuringseries,Last Rites, theInsidiousspin-off,Thread, and a remake of the Korean hitTrain to BusantitledThe Last Train to New York, which is currently in limbo following the cancellation of its scheduled 2023 release date.
In addition to the above, it was recently announced that Wan will also be revivingthe 1960s classic monster sitcomThe Munstersin what is said to be a “darker reimagining” of the lighthearted series which ran from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The new series, titled1313, will see Lindsay Anderson Beer jump aboard to serve as showrunner following her 2023 film,Pet Sematary: Bloodlines.
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News ofArea 51comes on the heels of the announcement last month that another extraterrestrial series,Resident Alien, was renewed for a fourth season and will be making the jump from SyFy to USA Network. While Wan’s new sitcom will be vastly differentfrom the Alan Tudyk show, it’s safe to say that its success certainly helpedArea 51get the green light it needed to move forward. We’ll have more news onArea 51, including casting, as it becomes available.
